Marcello Morandini

Marcello Morandini (1940–) is a prominent Italian artist and designer. A multifaceted figure, over the course of his life he has worked across different forms of expression—from architecture to product design, from sculpture to graphic design—always with an extreme consistency of visual language that makes his work immediately recognizable. Morandini’s palette is limited to black and white, articulated through forms with strong optical effects. The result is a hypnotic and captivating body of work, deeply influenced by the experiments of Op Art, where rigorous lines and the absence of color both confuse and seduce the eye. Born in Mantua but having moved as a child to Varese—where he later based his practice and where the Marcello Morandini Foundation is now located—he began his career as a graphic designer in the 1960s, pursuing in parallel an artistic path that saw him exhibiting in his twenties at major international events such as the 1967 São Paulo Biennial and the 1968 Venice Biennale. His furniture design work is at its best in limited-edition pieces, in which surfaces are covered with optical patterns that echo those of his art; he has also collaborated with brands such as Sawaya & Moroni, Abitare Baleri, Cleto Munari, and Martinelli Luce. One of his most important partnerships was with the German porcelain manufacturer Rosenthal, for which he designed not only several product collections but also the façade of their factory in Speichersdorf.